Stratford, Ontario

A Community Sporting Event Filled with Tradition

This Stratford cricket team has been battling it out with this Niagara-on-the-Lake team since 1974. Every year each team takes turns hosting the match and in 2023 a whole new group of organizers was tasked with upholding a tradition that they had never planned before with nothing to go off of except a few stories and historical budgets. Based on what the organizers had inherited from years previous, along with their own experience of the event in years passed, I helped reimagine what this event could look like while still holding fast to key touchpoints that tradition demanded.

Starting off with the task of raising $10, 000 to host the event, we organized several fundraisers including a Toronto club style dance party complete with a red carpet, two outdoor patios, a relaxing lounge with a limited menu on the bottom floor, and boppin’ dance floor on the upper level. We also organized a professional photoshoot and created a calendar to sell during the lead up to and on game day and other members of the community hosted private parties and cabarets. All together, the budget was knocked out of the park with funds to spare for following years.

When game day arrived, players were on the pitch at Lower Queen’s Park for noon and broke for the half at 3:00pm for a “Cricket Around the World“ hosted in the Stratford Festival Paul D. Fleck Marquee which served over 300 hungry guests. Once the game concluded at 6:00pm (and Stratford won!), a historically homemade Indian dinner was reimaged as a food truck festival where guests were given food vouchers and could pick from Brazilian pasteis, Indian street food, and edible cookie dough. The party lasted into the night with a dance party featuring an incredible urban-style DJ before it was time for both teams and their guests to head home until they meet again next year.

Photographs by Andrea Demars, Terry Babij, Caitlin Mears, and Heather Martin